After hanging around this board for the last 6 months or so, I think I can make the general observation that a good many flyfishers catch a good proportion of their trout on woolly buggers and/or other streamers. I only caught one trout on a streamer (rubber leg woolly bugger) last year. I try streamers ocaisionally when nothing else is working for me, but I rarely have any luck.

I would like to learn the art of streamer fishing this year. I'd like to hear your experience on this topic. Is there a book or DVD I should get? How about links to online articles?

Posted on: 2007/2/1 13:21

_________________Only one constant in the universe, all men are equal in the eyes of the fish. -GulfGreyhound paraphrasing Herbert Hoover

albatross i'm with you. never have much luck with streamers. I also rarely tie one on. I do however get some strikes. i believe a lot of the strikes are at the tail or the head, but rarely the hook meets the fish's mouth. From what I've read, a predatory fish will attack a bait fish at the head/eyes, or try to disable it be hitting the spine. So now when I tie my buggers, I add bead-chain eyes. But my confidences isn't their to try 1.

Streamers work great even in the dead of winter. buggers aren't the only thing though. just like my name the slump buster has caught me many fish. there are the occasional trout caught on small flies....but the saying is true big trout eat big food. big streamers will land some of your biggest fish

Posted on: 2007/2/1 23:06

_________________
Don't talk about fisheries topics if you know nothing about them

when nothing is coming up, buggers and such are great search patterns. And when I'm not catching anything on what I think I should be catching them on, a bugger will usually save the day. Its an invaluable fly. Major multi-tasker. I have fished it intentionally as: stonefly nymph, catterpillar, baitfish, crayfish and leech. While I do have much better luck with it from the float tube in lakes, I can't imagine being on a stream or river without some.

I've caught a few fish on buggers. However most of them happen to be bass where both bass and trout are in the area. I'm curious to know what size buggers you use for trout. I have mostly tied size 6 because i'm limited on my tying resources. And have also tied a few smaller ones on size 10 hooks. I vary color, weight, presentation, whatever. Just curious to see everyone elses input on my little bit of bugger trouble.

p.s. If anyone read my thread on odd color tying materials I tied a bugger the other day... black chenele, black palmering, gold tinsel wrapped around the body and the pink marabou I got for the tail with a little bit of flash. Looks awesome! can't wait to try it out!

6 is as big as I ever tie them. Anywhere from 12 up to 6 and you'll get use from them. If you find yourself getting short strikes, clip the tails a little shorter. I tie them in olive, tan, black and white. that's all. Other colors can be effective, those are just what I get the most use out of

Sometimes I only hackle behind the head like a wet fly. Other times I'll hackle the whole length. Sometimes I don't hackle at all and tie in a throat of crystal flash and put some of the same color in the tail. My all time favorite bugger, for lakes when I lived in Idaho was one with a black tail and red and black varigated chenille with grizzley hackle. Not sure what they thought it was but the trout used to pound the heck out of it.

When all else fails, out comes the bugger and sometimes I just start there. It's almost a "can't miss" deal. Across and downstream, cast upstream and crawl it along the bottom in the slower pools, drifted under banks and log jams/tree branches--like was said--slow and deep. In the slower pools on smaller streams, try casting across to the opposite bank, then drag it into the pool, let it sink and crawl it back--a little up and down jig doesn't hurt at all--lots of times the take will be when it drops. Present the buggers like naturals either drifting or fleeing. Fishing buggers at dark where there are sculpins present can produce some nice fish. Weight them with wire wraps or beadheads or both. A bit of flashabou in the tail works well.

I'm with the users For trout the bugger is my fly of first choice early in the season and last resort before trying to recall where I last saw a tavern as the season goes on. Fishing for smallies on the Delaware a black wooly bugger is the go-to fly.

By the way, I think JayL has it right when he points out that if you use a fly a bit and it catches fish then you develop confidence in it and will fish it more, which usually means you learn over time to fish it better. For instance, I love fishing the GRHE and have caught a lot of fish with it. On the other hand I don't fish a Pheasant Tail unless I actually see trout eating a little green bug with stubby swept back legs. My buddy will fish next to me and do great with a PT. I don't believe in it because it hasn't worked for me so I don't fish it and of course never gain any confidence in it. My apologies to frank Sawyer.Coughlin

This my friends, is the fly that will render the Bugger obsolete. A big hitter at the Somerset show, this pattern is very simple to tie. Tested on the waters of NC Pa and Montana with notable results to.

Best part about it, it only takes 52 seconds to tie. Not counting the bead of course.

I think I saw some of that at Gander mtn the other day...its like crystal flash leech yarn. Looked kind of cool and I thought about that fly immediately. I tie a bugger similar to that with leach yarn for the body and a typical marabou tail. I have no doubt that would be effective. It would be great in deep still water from a tube.

Dontchu nevermind about ol' Festus and his rightin abilities smartypants 'fore ya earn yerself a trip to the woodshed.

The material of which wee speak is called Peacock Plus dubbing with a secret elixir rubber for the legs. It is available on prespun wire brushes. Any more info than that, and I'd be violating board rules.